1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control system for controlling striping equipment mounted on a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Initially the striping or painting of paved roads was performed by hand. Today most road painting is performed from a vehicle at slow speeds. The vehicle pulls a trailer With the striping equipment, or the striping equipment is placed on the flat bed of a truck.
FIGS. 2, 3A and 3B show the typical layout of striping equipment mounted on the flatbed of a truck. Five controllers are primarily used to control striping equipment, such as shown in FIGS. 2, 3A and 3B, in the United States today. Those controllers include: LDI model 3SE-88, made by ECCI Micro-Wiz; Skipline Electronics model MS-88, made by Skipline Electronics; Research Derivatives model 304, made by Research Derivatives; MB model MB-3000, made by MCS-51 Series Micro Controller; Linetech Model Micro-Skip KD-1, made by Linetech. FIG. 1 is a block diagram representative of these conventional striping equipment controllers.
FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a top and left side view of a truck 10 carrying striping equipment. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B the striping equipment includes both paint tanks 100 and glass bead tank 102 for supplying striping material (paint and glass beads) to a left and right matrix of striping guns 140 and 142. The guns are mounted on a left carriage 106 and a right carriage 108, respectively. Striping guns 140 can be paint or glass bead dispensing guns.
FIG. 2 illustrates that the left carriage 106 and the right carriage 108 can be positioned near the rear of the vehicle 10 or a left carriage 106' and right carriage 108' can be positioned near the front of the vehicle 10. Alternatively, the left carriage 106 and right carriage 108 can be combined into a single carriage and disposed as a rear carriage 110 or a front carriage 112.
The left carriage supports a matrix of paint and glass bead guns 140 and the right carriage supports a matrix of paint and glass guns 142 shown in FIG. 2. Each matrix consists of one or more gun lines arranged across the width of the vehicle and perpendicular to the direction of the striping equipment vehicle's travel. Each gun line consists of a row of guns in the direction of and parallel to the vehicle's travel. The paint guns are arranged in front of the glass guns so that glass beads dispensed from the glass guns are dispensed onto freshly painted portions of the roadway. The dispensing of glass beads by the glass guns is also delayed by a predetermined amount dependent on the distance between the paint and glass guns. The delay ensures that the dispensing of the glass beads matches the dispensing of paint so that glass beads are dispensed onto freshly painted portions of the roadway and not unpainted portions of the roadway. An operator sets the delay, usually in terms of distance, using controller 124 shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, the glass guns are activated only after the vehicle 10 has travelled an operator-programmed distance after the activation of the paint guns. Glass beads applied to painted portions reflect light and make the painted portions more visible. The application of glass beads in conventional systems, as with the present invention, is optional.
Typically, either thermoplastic or paint are used to stripe roadways. Throughout the specification and the claims, the use of the word "paint" should be construed to cover both thermoplastic, paint, and any other material used to apply to a roadway. The use of the terminology "striping material" will refer to thermoplastic, paint, glass beads, and any other material used to apply to a roadway. Furthermore, the use of the terminology "painting" and "striping" are interchangeable, and "striping guns" refers to both paint guns and glass guns.
Typically, roads are striped using white and/or yellow paint. Occasionally, black paint is also used. Each gun in a gun line dispenses either paint of a certain color or glass beads. Depending on the requirements of the painting operation, only certain ones of the guns in a gun line are activated.
FIG. 2 illustrates the color and glass bead designations for the guns in one gun line of the left matrix of guns 140. FIG. 2 depicts three gun lines with five guns per gun line, however, the number of gun lines and the number of guns in a gun line can be increased or decreased with more than one gun dispensing the same color or glass beads.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional striping control system which includes a distance measuring device 114, left control box 116, right control box 118, a counter box 120 housing counters 122, junction box 126, and controller 124 for controlling the left matrix and right matrix of striping guns 140, 142.
In the embodiment of the conventional striping control system of FIG. 1, the distance measuring device 114 is illustrated as a pulse generator. The pulse generator generates pulses in relation to the rotation of a wheel of the vehicle 10, a fifth (extra) wheel, the transmission, etc. and outputs pulse signals representing the distance traveled.
The left control box 116 and right control box 118 output control signals for controlling the left matrix of paint and glass guns 140 and the right matrix of paint and glass guns 142, respectfully. Specifically, the control signals turn on or turn off a paint or glass gun. Typically the turning on or off of a paint or glass gun is performed by energizing or de-energizing a solenoid.
The left control box 116 includes an auto/manual switch 130, skip/solid switch 128, and a remote control 144. The auto/manual switch can be set in either an auto setting or a manual setting. The skip/solid switch 128 can be set in either a skip setting, an off setting or a solid setting. Although FIG. 1 only depicts a single skip/solid switch 128, for simplicity of illustration, left control box 116 will have a skip/solid switch 128 for each gun line in the left matrix of guns 140.
When the auto/manual switch 130 is in the auto setting and an operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the skip setting, the left control box 116 outputs a control signal to controller 124 via junction box 126. The controller 124 then sends control signals to the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switch 128, to paint a cycle stored in controller 124.
FIG. 4 illustrates the concepts of cycle, cycle length, paint portion, and skip portion. Each cycle has a paint portion and a skip portion. The paint portion is the distance over which paint is applied, and the skip portion is the distance over which no paint is applied. The cycle length is the length of one paint portion and associated skip portion which will be repeated as a cycle. The term "skipline" refers to the continuous and consecutive repetition of a cycle. All the cycles, blank lines, or solid lines being painted by a matrix of striping guns is referred to a painting or striping pattern.
When in the auto setting and the operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the off setting, the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switch 128 cease painting the cycle. Upon switching the skip/solid switch 128 from the off setting to the skip setting, left control box 116 and controller 124 do not resume painting the cycle from the point where the painting of the cycle was interrupted. Instead, the left control box 116 and controller 124 control the paint and glass guns to begin painting the cycle from the beginning of the cycle. Therefore, operators cannot suspend a painting operation and simply resume the painting operation without considerable effort in realigning the vehicle 10 before resuming the painting operation. When in the auto setting and the operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the solid setting, the left control box 116 outputs control signals to the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switch 128 so that a solid line is painted.
When the auto/manual switch 130 is in the manual setting and an operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the skip setting, the remote control 144 is activated. By depressing the push button 146 on remote control 144 an operator causes both the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switches 128 set in the skip setting to dispense paint. The dispensing of glass beads by the glass guns, however, is not delayed to match the glass beads with the painted portion. Consequently, the glass guns dispense glass beads on unpainted portions of the roadway. The paint and glass guns dispensing paint and glass in response to the depression of push button 146 will dispense paint and glass beads as long as the operator maintains the push button 146 depressed. When the operator releases push button 146, the paint and glass guns cease dispensing paint and glass beads.
When in the manual setting and the operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the off setting, the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switch 128 cease painting. When in the manual setting and the operator places the skip/solid switch 128 in the solid setting, the left control box 116 outputs control signals to the paint and glass guns corresponding to the skip/solid switch 128 so that a solid line is painted.
The left control box 116 also includes a paint switch (not shown). By operating the paint switch, an operator can change the color of paint supplied to the paint guns of the left matrix of guns 140. Alternatively, a paint switch can be supplied for each gun line in the matrix of guns.
A description of the right control box 118 is omitted, since the right control box 118 is the same as left control box 116 except that the right paint and glass guns are controlled.
The counter box 120 includes counters 122 for measuring the footage of paint and glass used. As shown in FIG. 2, the counter box 120 can be disposed in the cab of the truck and/or in the rear of the truck. The counters 122 measure the footage (distance) of paint and glass used based on the output signals from the left control box 116, right control box 118, controller 124, and the distance measuring device 114. The counter 122, one counter per gun, can count the footage of paint and glass applied by each gun based on the distance each gun applied paint or glass during the striping operation.
Except for the control signals produced by the left control box 116 and right control box 118 when in the solid setting or off setting, controller 124 receives all control signals produced by the left control box 116, right control box 118, and distance measuring device 114 via junction box 126. The controller 124 includes a control panel 134 with control keys 136. By operating an appropriate control key, an operator can view on display 138 the vehicle speed, the time of day, the cycle length of the stored cycle, the length of the paint portion of the stored cycle and the distance travelled in feet. The controller 124 includes a reset control key which allows an operator to reset accumulated values such as the distance travelled in feet.
The control panel 134 also includes a set up control key, paint delay control keys, and a program key. The set up control key is used to calibrate distance measurement using distance measuring device 114. Upon depressing the set up control key, the operator drives vehicle 10 a fixed distance and again depresses the set up control key. The controller 124 counts the number of pulses received from distance measuring device while travelling the fixed distance. The controller 124 can now compute the distance travelled based on the pulses received over the fixed distance.
The paint delay control keys allow an operator to set the delay, in units of distance, from the point at which a paint gun turns on until a corresponding glass gun turns on. The program control key sets controller 124 in a programming mode. In the programming mode, an operator can enter a cycle. Programming a cycle consists of inputting, in units of distance, the paint portion and skip portion of the cycle. The conventional controllers can only store a single cycle. Therefore, to paint a different skipline, an operator must stop the painting operation and reprogram the cycle. To paint different skiplines using the left matrix of guns and right matrix of guns 140, 142 at the same time requires the use of two controllers. Each controller would have control over one of the left matrix and right matrix of guns 140, 142.
The controller 124 includes advance and retard control keys which allow an operator to advance or retard the cycle. FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate the advance and retard cycle concepts. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, when the cycle is advanced or retarded, the cycle length remains the same. The beginning of the cycle, however, is either advanced by a predetermined amount, or retarded by a predetermined amount. This allows an operator to match the current striping of the roadway with previously striped portions assuming the cycle is the same.
Conventional control systems also receive signals from various sensors such as volume sensors (not shown) measuring the volume of paint and glass beads in the paint and glass bead supply tanks and temperature sensors (not shown) measuring the temperature of the paint applied. Conventional striping control systems monitor the total amount of paint applied, the total footage of paint applied, the temperature of the applied paint, the total footage of each color applied, and the pounds of glass used based on the output of the sensors and the distance measuring device 114. Based on the output from these sensors and the control signals sent to operate the paint and glass guns, the conventional striping control systems also monitor the footage of paint supplied per gun and the pounds of glass used per gun. The monitored information can also be printed.
When the signals from the paint and glass volume sensors indicate a volume below a predetermined value, conventional control systems are designed to issue either an audio or visual alarm.
Other than the advance and retard capability, conventional striping control systems do not aid in the repainting of a previously painted roadway. Operators of conventional striping control systems must repeat the same control operations as when the roadway was originally painted.
Furthermore, these conventional striping control systems do not allow for correction of the cycle length or the paint portion of a cycle. Instead, each change or adjustment of the cycle length or paint portion of a cycle requires an operator to reprogram the cycle in the controller.
The monitoring functions performed by conventional striping control systems provide the opportunity for operators to "cheat" in the painting operation. Since only the total footage of paint and glass are monitored, an operator can skimp on the amount of paint used in the painting operation. The total footage of paint applied would be the same as if the operator had applied the appropriate amount of paint during the entire painting operation. The operator, thus, saves money in terms of the amount of paint applied, but the roadway receives an improperly low amount of paint.
Additionally, when breakdowns in the striping equipment or the striping control system itself occur, the conventional striping control systems do not include any means for determining which part has malfunctioned.